History!

This is coolbert:

"You see, people have no respect for history,”

"The gallant Hood of Texas played hell in Tennessee"

History as it was then and is remembered now. "War and Remembrance" [thanks to Herman Wouk] from first the Sepoy Mutiny, and secondly from the American Civil War.

How exactly are such events remembered over a century and a half later?

1. The Sepoy Mutiny, Cawnpore and Lucknow.

The events as they unfolded in 1857:

The Mutiny. Cawnpore, Lucknow.

And one hundred fifty years later, thanks to the Financial Express of India, as it is NOW [original article written in 2007].

"Exactly 150 years ago, sepoy Mangal Pandey was executed in Barrackpore. Travelling to several key locations of the uprising that shook the Empire, Sunday FE gauges what the country’s first War of Independence means now"

"Echoes of a Distant war"

It would seem that the episode of 1857 is not forgotten, but that little remains that gives evidence that the events actually occurred. And in the minds of the locals, as it is everywhere else in the world, the concerns of the here and now are of course foremost in the mind.

“'All gone waste, sir. The Angrez [English] have left but has it made a difference to poor people like me? Not really.'”

“The last stone of that memorial is right outside my shop,"

"'Why do you want to click pictures here?' asks the church priest. '1857 is a closed chapter'"

2. Battle of Franklin.

Climactic battle of the American Civil War. The Confederate army of John Bell Hood in pursuit of the Union army of Schofield. That Union army turning on the pursuer and occupying previously constructed defensive positions. A battle, a single-day five-hour long combat action resulting in horrendous casualties, both armies going at one another with gusto, flags flying and bands playing! AND THE ONLY OCCASION WHEN A CONFEDERATE ARMY LEFT THE BATTLEFIELD IN ROUT AND DISARRAY!

The site of the battle until recently not even consideration given to preservation or memorial. The location given over to pizza restaurants, strip mall, housing development. Was rather regarded as a place of shame and humiliating Southern defeat?

"– the “Five Bloodiest Hours of the American Civil War” – but, in the end, a futile bloodbath at best."

Currently, a battlefield being restored, the "remembrance" now in stride. History being re-captured, those having died nearly one hundred fifty years ago not being forgotten!

"Franklin: Then & Now"

"There on Columbia Pike, near where the Pizza Hut once stood, where you now see a Domino’s [a pizza restaurant] and a strip mall and small postage stamp lots with houses will someday – someday soon, if we have our way – be a battlefield park where 11 medals of honor were earned and Cleburne and so many of his comrades fell."

Contrary to what the priest says, The Sepoy Mutiny is not forgotten, NOR is the Battle of Franklin. NOR should these historical "events" be EVER forgotten. The closed chapter is still part of open book in both instances.

coolbert.